Firearm safety is a major problem in the world today. Even though most weapons are manufactured with safety mechanisms they are not designed adequate enough to prevent injury or deaths by being discharged accidentally. Children are not schooled in the functions of firearms and smaller children use them as toys. Youngsters do not realize the danger of a weapon, thereby; hundreds of children and adults have been seriously injured or killed. Many policemen are wounded or killed with their own weapon each year. Guns are accidentally fired and result in injury or death to nearby persons. People take for granted that a weapon is unloaded when, in fact, they are loaded and result in people being injured, maimed or killed.
There are many gun safety devices in use today. One such device is a trigger lock. Trigger locks do prevent a weapon from being discharged. Most trigger locks are bulky and installation is time consuming. This prevents a person from using the firearm in a reasonable time frame.
Trigger guards are used on many firearms. Most trigger guards require the manipulation of a key or screw to place the weapon in a safety mode. Again, this is time consuming and very clumsy especially for a person with large hands or bad eyesight. The time that is required for removing a trigger guard could result in injury or death to the user.
Many safety devices are designed to have a rod inserted into the muzzle of a weapon and an attachment inserted in to the firing chamber connected to the rod and pulled or tightened to swell the attachment in the weapons firing chamber. Usually, this is accomplished by twisting the rod clockwise to lock and counter-clockwise to unlock, many are keyed. These type barrel devices are again, time consuming, expensive and could result in injury or death if an apparatus is being installed in a loaded weapon. A person in a hurried situation could conceivably remove the device inserted in the firing chamber and leave the rod in the barrel, chamber a round, and fire the weapon that could result in injury or death to the user.
Many devices have been invented to prevent firearms from being discharged. One such device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,923, to Smith, shows a safety clip attached to the handgrip of a shotgun. The clip further extends upward and into the magazine. The clip then curls back and against the shell that is ready to be injected into the firing chamber. This system would prevent semi-automatic and automatic shotguns from being fired if there is no shell present in the firing chamber before the safety clip is installed. Mr. Smith's safety device would be of little use on other weapons. For example, the device could not be mounted to a single barrel weapon or a break-over shotgun.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,992, to Lavergne, shows a locking apparatus inserted into the magazine of a weapon with a frame extending upward with said frame having a keyed lock, when rotated, positions a lever down and into the ejection port. The art displayed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,992, to Mr. Lavergne, limits the use of the firearm safety device to magazine type firearms.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,952 and 5,097,613 to Miller, depicts a loaded, live semi-automatic rifle cartridge, as used by the U.S. Military M-16 Rifle. Further art displays a safety plug designed similar to the M-16's cartridge and manufactured by using certain plastics or alloy materials. The art displays a visual indicator tab protruding from the ejection port that allows visual inspection to determine if a live round has been injected into the firing chamber. The safety plug is of great benefit to allow visual inspection but can be easily removed by opening the breech and manually removing the tab and plug. After removing the plug a child, adult or perpetrator would be allowed to use the weapon.
Safety plugs, locking mechanisms, gun locking devices and chamber devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,014,457, 5,070,635, 4,995,180, 5,038,580, 5,419,069, 5,475,994 and 5,669,252.
Accordingly, it is the objective of the present invention to provide a Firearm Safety Apparatus for use in most all rifles, shotguns, semi-automatic and automatic weapons, and pistols.